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With summer just around the corner, you’re probably fresh off cutting down your favorite jeans into a stylish yet economical pair of jorts. But hold on to them janties, because JORTSFEST, Atlanta’s DIY music and arts festival, is coming back bigger and better than ever. In years past, JORTSFEST has taken place at Georgia Tech’s Under the Couch, but this year they’re moving to DIY dreamspace Mammal Gallery and they need your help to make it even doper than usual. With a motto of “always free, always all ages, always accessible,” JORTSFEST recently started a Kickstarter to help raise funds to implement that motto in a way that will help Atlanta’s DIY scene in a number of ways.

In addition to paying the venue cost and the performers, JORTSFEST also seeks to purchase a Roll-A-Ramp portable ramp that will live at Mammal Gallery but can be used by spaces all over Atlanta to make their stages accessible to performers of all kinds throughout the city. In addition to keeping JORTSFEST accessible in terms of cost and transit, the festival has maintained a commitment to using venues that are ADA compliant and, through this fundraiser, they will be able to help spread that vision to spaces all over the city

Organizers Maria sotnikova and carter sutherland

As organizer Maria Sotnikova puts it, “presuming the definition of queer that we're talking about is any self-determined identity that falls outside normative culture, JORTSFEST's motto of "always free, always all ages, always accessible" is attempting to create an intentional place for the celebration of queer identities that is removed (as much as it can be) from classism, ageism, and ableism seen in normative society.” And if helping out your fellow queers isn’t enough of a reason to contribute, this Kickstarter is offering up goodies that will have you shelling out with pleasure including original art by Squishiepuss and @BlackCatTips, fresh JORTSFEST merch, and mix CDs of previous JORTSFEST performers including queer musicians like Man Up Yancey, Surrogates, and Yolk.

So why not reach into the pockets of your daisy dukes and do something good for the city? You know you want another place to show off those jorts anyway!